Where the Bison roam

What a difference a year makes!!!  Last year at this time I was in Chicago, living in a hotel room receiving what ended up being the toughest part of my cancer treatment – Proton Therapy.  I came out of the 33 treatments at a shocking weight of 95 pounds!  Today I feel much better and I’m pushing the scales a little closer to 110 pounds. 

It’s such an amazing contrast, Saturday we had dinner with our friends Jim and Mariann and on Sunday we treated ourselves and our dogs to a walk in Battelle Darby Metro Park to see the bison herd.  The Park has a total of over 7000 acres and several paddocks for the herd of 9 bison that roam year round.

There’s not much personal cancer news… April 6^th is my appointment with Dr. Kanodia and then I start more testing on April 10^th.  But for those looking for cancer information there’s a great free 11 day documentary series called, “The Quest For The Cures” which is about preventing and reversing cancer with nutrition and natural therapies – here’s the link.   http://bit.ly/questcontinues2015

And on television this week, PBS has a six hour Ken Burns documentary Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies.

Under the category of WTF…The new CEO of Livestrong is a woman – Chandini Portteus who spent the past several years working for the Susan Koman Foundation.  Komen brought pink to the NFL, Ford and even pink KFC chicken buckets.  I can’t make this stuff up.  They paid the former CEO over $400,000 per year and I have no idea what this woman’s salary will be.  I’ve lost all respect for Livestrong and most, but not all respect for other cancer charities.  They’re completely out of touch.  I’ve said it before – your money is your money, BUT know where it’s going.  If it’s going to cancer research/pharmaceuticals the death rate has only improved about 5% since 1950.  And the 5 year survival rate for cancer patients has only improved about 5% since 1970.

If you really want to help a cancer patient mow their yard, arrange for someone to help clean the house.  Anything that takes time or physical energy is difficult for the entire family when fighting cancer. If they are struggling financially – which many, many are (The Former Boyfriend and I are not) put that cash directly into their hands so they can pay bills, buy good food or put gas into the car. They will not waste your money. That’s my thought on how to help a cancer patient.